Pauline was given a variety of explanations before she found out exactly why she felt exhausted
A mum who felt “tired all the time” was given devastating news earlier this month. Pauline Cox, 50, from the Old Swan area, used to have a busy lifestyle with her partner Peter and children James, 34, Kayleigh, 26 and Ellie, 18. But this was put on pause during the pandemic.
When restrictions were lifted, Pauline felt her energy never returned and she was constantly exhausted. A fundraiser for a homeless charity, she says her GP put the fatigue down to factors such as weight gain, menopause and her age. On November 28 2023, Pauline was told she had a tumour on her kidney which needed to be removed. She had surgery on February 7 of this year.
Scan results later showed she had clear cell renal cell carcinoma, a common type of kidney cancer. Then on July 1, the mum was given the devastating news that her cancer is incurable. According to the National Cancer Institute, feeling tired is one of several symptoms of this type of illness, although some people living with it do not experience any symptoms at all.
Pauline is receiving various treatments for her condition but doctors have told her they don’t know when they will stop working.
Speaking to the ECHO about when she noticed something wasn’t right, Pauline said: “It was quite manic before covid and I’ve always lived like that.
“Everything stopped in the pandemic. When everything opened back up, I just didn’t have the energy. I was just tired all the time. I’d wake up feeling exhausted and couldn’t wait to go back to bed.
“I’m a woman of a certain age, so it was a lot of, ‘you’ve put on a bit of weight on the pandemic’, or, ‘you’re not young anymore’, or ‘it could be menopause’, so it was just brushed aside.”
Around the same time inflammatory markers were found, Pauline was referred for a scan to check for gallstones which took place on November 22 2023. Although her results appointment was booked for January, she was told two days later that it would take place the following week.
Pauline said: “I got off the phone and I burst out crying. I’m not a panicker but I thought, ‘why are they skipping seven weeks of people to see me?’ Something must be up.”
On November 28, Pauline was told she had a 5cm tumour on her kidney and 10 days later she got a call to say her entire kidney would need to be removed.
Pauline had surgery on February 7 and was so scared she was going to die she wrote letters to her children, partner and dad before theatre.
After the surgery, Pauline couldn’t sit up, move, or get to the toilet. When the results came back, she was told she had aggressive grade 4 clear cell renal cell carcinoma. The cancer had spread beyond the kidney to two lymph nodes.
Pauline was referred to Clatterbridge and started immunotherapy to reduce the chances of it coming back, but that didn’t work either. It was on July 1 that doctors told her the cancer was incurable.
Pauline said: “I had three months of immunotherapy. It was supposed to be two years but you get scanned every three months.
“After the first scan they said, ‘sorry, it’s bad news, the immunotherapy hasn’t worked, it just doesn’t work for some people, we don’t know why, and if one immunotherapy doesn’t work for you, it means none of them will’.
“They said it wasn’t curable. I just burst out crying.”
Pauline is still receiving treatment for her illness but doesn’t know how long she has to live. She said: “I have had two scans and both have been stable. Essentially, it works as long as it works.
“It could stop working next month, it could stop working in a few months, but it will eventually stop working. We just don’t know when.”
This uncertainty has made the last few months difficult for Pauline. She said: “I’m used to being so active. Before the pandemic I was in the gym twice a day and always socialising, on top of doing fundraising and events like that.
“Now, if I have two meetings in person in a day for work, I go and I’ll sleep the whole of the next day.
“I was always somebody to make plans too. What really upset me was that I’d always thought, when my youngest turned 18, I would start saving to buy and do up a van because I love DIY.
“I got diagnosed about 10 months before my youngest turned 18. I’ve looked after my kids with the intention of me doing all these things I’d always wanted to do when they grew up and it just felt like it was all smashed away from me.
“I lost my mum when I was 40. I think about my kids going through that at a much younger age than I did and I didn’t cope very well with it.
“I’ve bought memory boxes for them and written Christmas cards for them years and years in advance.”
Pauline is also keen to carry out a bucket list and was encouraged to set up a fundraiser to help her do so. She has bought a van and is planning holidays to Boston and Canada.
Pauline said: “Most of the messages on the GoFundMe have been strangers but they’ve seen me on social media helping other people. It’s really nice.”
Pauline has also urged anyone who feels something isn’t quite right to press for answers. She said, “Who knows, it might have been a different outlook if it had been investigated from the off. I think people, especially, should be persistent and speak up.”
You can find out more about Pauline’s GoFundMe here.